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Congress cuts $18m for party conventions; could bolster Dallas’ bid for RNC 2016

Delegates from Texas, New Hampshire and Georgia cheer the Romney-Ryan ticket at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Aug. 29, 2012.

WASHINGTON – Congress quietly cut $18 million in public funds Tuesday for each party’s presidential convention.

That’s bad and good news for Dallas.

Whatever city wins the 2016 conventions – and Dallas is one of eight vying for the GOP extravaganza – would likely have to raise that much more cash. On the other hand, Dallas has a relatively large base of corporate and deep-pocket Republican donors, which means that as the financial burden gets worse, Dallas looks even stronger compared to most of the competition.

Republican Party leaders have made it clear they expect a host city to raise at least $50 million to stage the extravaganza. That target assumed a subsidy traditionally provided from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, filled from those $3 check boxes taxpayers see when they file with the IRS on April 15.

That subsidy is now endangered. The Senate sent to the president a bill that would shift $126 million over the next decade from that account to the National Institutes of Health for children’s medical research.

In both parties, some lawmakers have long complained about the federal subsidies.

“It’s good news to the taxpayers of America that after something like three decades, we will not be using tax money to pay for the political conventions,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after the measure cleared the Senate Tuesday on a voice vote. “For balloons and all of the rest that are part of a political convention, that ought to be paid for by willing donors, not by the taxpayers of the United States.”

The House approved the same measure in December on a bipartisan 295-103 vote. President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law.

The move doesn’t affect the $50 million grant expected for security in each convention city.

“It strengthens the hold of millionaire donors, corporations, trade groups and other special interests on our political parties and their candidates,” warned Common Cause president Miles Rapoport. “Those big donors will swoop in to cover convention expenses now absorbed by public funds, and they’ll extract all manner of special favors in return.”

The “Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act” is named after a Virginia girl who died of brain cancer at age 10. It was championed by lawmakers in both parties, with support from Autism Speaks, the National Fragile X Foundation and over 100 other patient advocacy groups.

The 2012 host cities, Tampa for the GOP and Charlotte, N.C., for the Democrats, both struggled to meet fund-raising targets.

Dallas will present its proposal to the Republican Party’s site selection committee on March 21 in Washington, along with Las Vegas and Cincinnati. Five other cities made their presentations on March 3: Denver, Phoenix, Kansas City, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

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The blog for the Dallas Morning News politics team tracks Dallas Fort Worth area, Texas and national campaigns.